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Champion
"By my honour, I will not yield!" Advanced (Core) Champions are warriors who dedicate their lives to martial combat, excelling as no others on the field of battle. They are not leaders of men, but as individual combatants they are peerless. They live for the moments when their skills are tested to the utmost, for only then do they truly know just how good they are. Many Champions serve in armies, warbands, and martial orders, though others wander the Empire, selling their formidable skills to the highest bidder. Their weapons are inevitably among the finest to be had in the Old World. Main Profile Secondary Profile Skills: Dodge Blow, Evaluate, Intimidate, Perception Talents: Fleet Footed or Lightning Reflexes, Lightning Parry, Master Gunner, Mighty Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Reload, Specialist Weapon Group (any three), Wrestling Trappings: Any Six Weapons (all of Best Craftsmanship), Medium Armour (Mail Shirt and Leather Jack) Career Entries Assassin, Duellist, Judicial Champion, Knight of the Inner Circle, Targeteer, Veteran, Witch Hunter Career Exits Assassin, Scout, Sergeant, Witch Hunter The Search for Glory In the long months of winter when armies must be barracked, or during the rare times when the Empire’s borders enjoy peace, it is common for the champion of a regiment to request leave to wander the lands in search of opportunities to test his mettle. Each day spent enduring the monotony of camp or meaningless drills is a day where his prowess is wasted. The champion’s commander usually grants this request, knowing that the champion will return to duty when needed. A wise leader knows it is better for a champion to put his fighting abilities to the test elsewhere than turn them against his fellow soldiers in frustration. A wandering champion will seize any chance to increase his renown, whether it is dispatching a marauding goblin warband or slaying a terrorising minotaur in its forest lair. Accruing money is secondary to attaining glory, and a champion will often lend his sword-arm to a worthy cause for no reward. For him, it is enough that his deeds will be immortalised in story and song. The dream of the champion is to not die old and rich, but fall with his bloodied sword in hand, dead enemies at his feet, and his deeds crowned with honour. Death Before Dishonour The Storm of Chaos gave many ambitious champions the opportunity to prove their worth. Among them was Dagmar Nachgeben, champion of the Middenheim Greatswords, who held Middenheim’s southern gatehouse alone against Archaon’s wild hordes after the rest of his regiment was slaughtered defending it. He plugged the breach in the gates with muscle and iron will, the honour of his regiment at stake. Countless marauders and mutants fell before Nachgeben’s blade, and he fought standing on a mound of their corpses. He claimed the heads of three Champions of Chaos, though each towered above him, furious with the wrath of their twisted gods. Finally, his vitality leaching from a score of wounds, his face a mask of blood, he crossed his greatsword with the fiery scimitar of the Chaos Lord Bellarus Deviltongue. Deviltongue’s blood-hungry weapon clove through Nachgeben’s blade and into his ribs, but summoning his last reserves of strength, Nachgeben grappled his adversary. Together they toppled to their deaths at the distant foot of the Ulricsberg. Nachgeben halted the besiegers long enough for reinforcements to secure the breach, his small victory one of the many that ultimately saved Middenheim. A statue of Nachgeben has been erected at the scene of his heroics. He fulfiled every champion’s ambition: His feats will outlive him, commemorated in stone.